Day 1 Recap

We had some beautiful, sunny weather for our first day of the 2012-2013 frostbite season, and 24 boats out on the line to enjoy it. Racing was started at 12:30 instead of 12:00 due to longish introductory skipper's meeting and an ill-timed car carrier. Despite the delay, four races (all course 4) were run.

Wind was a Northwesterly, starting off at a healthy 8-10 knots at noon gradually tapering off to about 2-5 knots for the last race. Sizable lefties and righties made for an interesting day..the left shifts seemed to come with the best velocity, while gigantic righties kept RC antsy. Finicky Northwesterly breezes generally make it hard for RC to settle into the course but I think the team found a pretty decent average for the conditions. There were some crazy moments, like when a massive lefty during the sequence resulted in everybody starting on port tack, only to be counteracted with what felt like a 90 degree righty.

With our beautiful new mains up, the entire fleet had to relearn how to sail a R-19. It seemed to me that the boats found a fast groove going upwind sailing high.. but I haven't actually taken one of them out for a spin with the new gear. Please discuss - we're as new to these sails as you are!

What felt good? What felt bad?

Where did you find the best draft position?

What about jib car/ traveler position?

How did have your vang and outhaul set?

Congratulations to John Pratt and Bob Coyle for winning the first day of the series with 17 points on such a fickle day. Runners up are Jen Bodde, sailing with Niko Kotsatos, coming in at 18 points and Steve Clancy with Mark Deshong at 20 points.

As always, let us know if you will not be able to make it Saturday so we can fill the boat! We have a incredibly long wait list of high schoolers, staff, eager skippers/crews, and full teams that got boxed out this year. On windier days I'd like to encourage you to take one of our high schoolers out as a third - they would love it and can learn a lot from you all!